Not sure about this, I suggest doing some market research on cnet, download.com, tucows etc. do some searches on google etc.

I guess side scrollers are pretty much an untapped market. Ever played THE REAP, that was a cool scrolling game, pretty recent as well.

-Nick

Speaking of Konami, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night seemed to do pretty well. I'd only base my decision on that though if you have the proven track record and established fanbase like Konami/Castlevania.

[edited by - SysOp_1101 on August 7, 2002 5:55:16 AM]

quote: Original post by GBolt
What is the market size for a slightly newer type of
side scrolling shooter cum puzzle game ?

Well, the "adult" market is huge, but not sure about your particular "adult/game" combination.

Seriously, though, do the research on it. Without having done the research myself, I would suspect you could get decent results if you have an excellent game. There are already quite a few side scrollers out there, so you need something to set yours apart from everything else. On the other hand, I''m not sure I''ve seen that many of these games with any real market push behind them (outside of the console market, that is). If you try real hard and market it well, you might do well.

Of course, with Dexterity releasing Strayfire within the next month(???) or so, hopefully Steve or Kurt (the guy who wrote Strayfire and runs flipcode) will be able to tell you. In fact, Kurt has been selling strayfire on his own for about half a year now. I think I''ll go drop him an email and see what he has to say about his results so for (prior to Dexterity publishing it). I''ll respond back if he has any info he would like to share.

Ron Frazier
Kronos Software
www.kronos-software.com
Miko & Molly - Taking Puzzle Games to A Whole New Dimension

I actually think that by "side-scrollers" the original poster didn''t mean shoot''em''ups, such as our own Intensity XS, or Demonstar, Raptor, Space Tripper, etc. - I definitely think there''s a good Sharewaremarket for these games out there, I know that all of the above games have done quite well.

Rather, a "side-scroller" here is a platformer, correct? (i.e. something like Jazz Jackrabbit, or the original Sonic, Mario, etc). How well do those do??? No idea if you''re talking about PCs, but there have been a lot of them released for the handheld market lately, especially the Gameboy Advance.

Duke Nuke''em Manhatten Project was a recent such game for the PC. I actually haven''t tried it myself, nor do I know how well it did, but perhaps you could find out by contacting the publisher? Other than that, the last PC side-scroller I can remember would be Jazz 2.